RSS Feeds not including thumbnails

[Freddie Bingham]

Attachments are supported when using external.php to view the content of your forum.

[scorpio24]

Does this mean attachments are controlled by the exporter?

ie if I export data, I would set the feeds to contain attachments via these settings?
(attachment)

So I will have to contact the feed site and ask them to make attachments importable?

thx..

[Steve Machol]

As Freddie said attachments aren't supported with external.php.

[Freddie Bingham]

NO, external.php will show attachments if you allow guests to view attachments.

[scorpio24]

please clarify as I am new to rss. I'm recieving a feed from a website, and I would like attachments to be a part of the imported posts. Does External php refer to me or to the website I am receiving a feed from?

I did change the attachment permissions like you instructed for guests(non-registered/not signed in) in the receiving forum on my site, but the photos from the feed still aren't attached.

[Freddie Bingham]

external.php refers to you, content that you display.

If you are importing a feed from another vBulletin forum, one with attachments, then those attachments will not be converted into attachments on your forum. They will display as an image or a link within the post if you use {rss:content:encoded} in your RSS template instead of {rss:description}.

[scorpio24]

I'm importing from a non Vbulletin website..so basically I'm sol without some sort of customized hack if I want photos to display..whether attached or linked to?

{rss:content:encoded} in your RSS template instead of {rss:description}.

I tried this and still no pictures...just the description and the url link to the original post appear.

{rss:description}
More...

[Freddie Bingham]

What is the feed URL?

[sinjix_media]

Place this code in your body template (rss manager)
This will add the title,description, and a link to the original post.

[b]{rss:title}[/b]

{rss:description}

[url={rss:link}]More...[/url]

as far as posting any attachments...

what u just posted there is petty much default

[sinjix_media]

i was pretty sure that pictures were impossible because I have plenty of RSS feeds that should include them and even when i use contentencoded they don't show.

[Freddie Bingham]

Show me your feeds and I'll tell you what is going on. If the "picture" is from an enclosure tag, then it won't display.

[scorpio24]

Here is the feed:

http://vancouver.craigslist.org/gms/index.rss

This is what gets imported to my site...except the description is also included {rss:description}
then you click the link to view the attachments if any.

So, can I somehow have my rss hotlink to these photos?
Or have them attached?

Or would this be a major customization to accomplish?

thx!

[Freddie Bingham]

To clear up terminology, please only use attachments when referring to vBulletin. The images that are contained on craigslist are just <img src> tags - not attachments.

<item rdf:about="http://vancouver.craigslist.org/gms/244985151.html">
<title>Going on a trip around the world- whole houseful must go! (825 East 7th Ave, Vancouver)</title>
<link>http://vancouver.craigslist.org/gms/244985151.html</link>
<dc:rights>Copyright 2006, craigslist.org</dc:rights>
<dc:source>http://vancouver.craigslist.org/gms/244985151.html</dc:source>
<dc:language>en-us</dc:language>
<dc:date>2006-12-06T10:02:17-08:00</dc:date>
<dc:title>Going on a trip around the world- whole houseful must go! (825 East 7th Ave, Vancouver)</dc:title>
<dc:type>text</dc:type>
<dcterms:issued>2006-12-06T10:02:17-08:00</dcterms:issued>
</item>

This is an item from the feed and you can see that no description is included with it so when this imported, all you will get is the title.

Some aggregates might see the lack of description and then request the content at the dc:source location. Sharpreader does this whereas Bloglines only displays the title.

These feeds really should included a useable description as it should not be expected that we request every source url in each item to obtain our own content.

If we did this then the images would appear as you expect them to. A suggestion could be made that if a feed is lacking a useable description, that the html found at the source should be requested. I would be surprised if many feeds operate in this manner as it must be rare that an RSS feed fails to carry a description within the item as that violates the spirit of RSS.

[scorpio24]

I do receieve the description as well as the title in another category. All I need to know is what I see on the feed page of craigslist is what I get right? If the (img's) don't appear on the craigslist feed page (even though they are in the main ad) then there is no body template code I can add in RSS feed manager that will retreive these images?

[Freddie Bingham]

No.